“Brothers-in-arms”? Graves from the Pre-Roman Period Furnished with a Double Set of Weaponry
Volume 8 (2007): Weapons, Weaponry and Man (In memoriam Vytautas Kazakevičius), pp. 47–57
Pub. online: 9 November 2007
Type: Article
Open Access
Received
22 January 2007
22 January 2007
Revised
26 May 2007
26 May 2007
Published
9 November 2007
9 November 2007
Abstract
Graves of two warriors equipped with rich sets of weapons, emerge on the Celtic territories from the early La Tène period till the end of phase D2. Graves with double sets of weapons (one and two-edged swords) placed in metal vessels are known from the apparently Germanic cultures of northern Europe. Celtic graves are evident burials of two (or more) persons, warriors of similar status expressed by analogous weaponry. “Germanic” Oksywie Culture, and Scandinavian finds are burials of individual persons, notable warriors, who were given special sets of weapons to show their social position. A similar situation observed at an archaeological level could have had different grounds and meant different phenomena.